Kirk Cameron changes his show tune

Kirk Cameron says he loves everyone -- even the gays. But just because he thinks they shouldn't be bullied doesn't mean he thinks they should be able to get married.

Kirk Cameron is shocked -- shocked he says! -- over the firestorm of controversy his anti-gay comments created. Even more shocking is that he now says he doesn't hate gays after all, in his own self-serving, roundabout way.

In an interview on The Today Show, the former Growing Pains actor said we shouldn't be surprised that he feels the way he does considering his hardcore religious beliefs -- but despite how it sounded, he doesn't have an ounce of hate in him for anyone.

"I was surprised, frankly, that people were surprised by the things that I've said," he said. "I have been consistent for 15 years as a Christian. I'm a Bible-believing Christian. What I would have thought was more newsworthy is if I had said something that contradicted the word of God, if I had contradicted my faith."

"I love all people, I hate no one," Cameron claimed. "When you take a subject and reduce it to something like a four-second sound bite and a check mark on a ballot, I think that that's inappropriate and insensitive… To edit it down to that, it certainly didn't reflect my full heart on the matter."

"Nobody should mistreat anybody," he continued. "We all have our convictions formed by different things and mine are informed by my faith. They're formed by the word of God, and I found that to be an anchor for me, a compass and a guide for me. When people start bullying one another and calling each other names for those different convictions, then I think you get into problems."